10 lessons we've learnt from the European elections

Neil Clark is a journalist, writer, broadcaster and blogger. He has written for many newspapers and magazines in the UK and other countries including The Guardian, Morning Star, Daily and Sunday Express, Mail on Sunday, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman, The Spectator, The Week, and The American Conservative. He is a regular pundit on RT and has also appeared on BBC TV and radio, Sky News, Press TV and the Voice of Russia. He is the co-founder of the Campaign For Public Ownership @PublicOwnership. His award winning blog can be found at www.neilclark66.blogspot.com. He tweets on politics and world affairs @NeilClark66

An elderly man slouches as other supporters hold EU flags during a campaign rally for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) attended by the German chancellor ahead of European Parliament elections due to take place on May 25, 2014 (AFP Photo / John Macdougall) / AFP

There are many lessons to be learnt from the European election results. But whether Europe's spectacularly out-of-touch political and media elite do learn from them is a different thing altogether.

Lesson #1:Left parties need to be radical
and populist.

The success of the anti-bail-out, anti-austerity party Syriza,
who topped the poll in Greece, was one of the most eye-catching
results of the election. Some would argue that Greece is a
special case, but it was noticeable how a number of more
establishment-friendly parties of the center-left failed to make
the gains they should have. Despite Spain's economic woes, the
Spanish Socialists did very badly, losing nine of its 23 seats.
They were hit by the support for Podemos (We Can), a brand new
left-wing party, which got almost 8 percent, and the United Left
bloc which saw its support soar from 3.7 percent in 2009 to 10
percent this time. Questions are being asked of British Labour
leader Ed Miliband after his party could only finish second, and
over two percentage points behind UKIP. Francois Hollande's
Socialists came a very poor third in France, with the party
widely seen to be elitist, out of touch and not on the side of
ordinary people. In many countries in Europe voters are turning
their backs on so-called 'center-left' parties whose policies in
the most important areas differ little, if at all, from
traditional parties of the center-right.

Lesson #2:Russophobia is certainly no vote
winner.

Whether its parties of the right like UKIP and the Freedom Party
of Austria, or of the genuine socialist left, like Syriza in
Greece or Die Linke in Germany, a noticeable feature of the
election was the positive showing of parties daring to differ
from the European establishment's party line on Russia/Ukraine.
Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras attacked Western policy towards
Ukraine and Russia earlier this month and denounced sanctions
against Moscow. Die Linke, whose level of support was virtually
the same as in 2009, have said: “Our message is No New Cold
War in Europe!” and have called sanctions on Russia
counterproductive. In Britain, as I discussed here establishment politicians and pundits
expressed their outrage when UKIP leader Nigel Farage said that
the EU had 'blood on its hands over its 'imperialist,
expansionist policy' towards Ukraine. Farage was attacked by the
establishment gatekeepers when he said he admired President Putin
and he was even scolded for appearing on RT. The 'Shut up,
you can't say that!' brigade expected that highlighting
Farage's 'extreme' and 'outrageous' comments on
Ukraine would damage his party's electoral chances: in fact UKIP
with its 'pro-Putin' leader ended up topping the poll. What, I
wonder, will it take for elite Russophobes to understand that
their anti-Russia and anti-Putin obsessions are not shared by
ordinary members of the public?

Lesson #3:UKIP will pose a major threat to
the traditional leading parties in next year's UK's general
election.

For the first time since 1906 a party, other than the
Conservatives or Labour, garnered the most votes in a national
poll in the UK. UKIP took votes off the three traditional parties
across the country and those 'pundits' who dismissed them as a
'flash in the pan' are now looking rather silly. The
Conservatives' best (and some would say only) chance of remaining
in power after the 2015 general election would be to ditch leader
David Cameron and elect a more Euro-skeptic leader who could cut
an electoral deal with UKIP. It is clear that Labour must change
its policy on Europe too, and agree to give the British people a
referendum on EU membership, plus adopt more populist left-wing
positions in a variety of policy areas in order to counter the
growing challenge from UKIP. The Liberal Democrats look dead in
the water and even a change of leader is unlikely to be enough to
revive their fortunes given their espousal of unpopular policies
in a number of areas.

Lesson #4:Europe's Liberal Parties are in
crisis.

In Britain support for the Liberal Democrats slumped to 6.69
percent and the party now has just one MEP. Across the continent,
it was a similar story for other liberal parties. Germany's Free
Democrats, who polled almost 11 percent in 2009 saw their support
slump to just 3.5 percent. Romania's opposition liberal leader
Crin Antonescu has already resigned following his party's poor
performance. In Britain, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg
campaigned on an unequivocally pro-EU platform and look where
that got him.

Lesson #5:Establishment media is nowhere
near as powerful or influential as it once was.

Across Europe the 'plebs' were warned against voting for
'extreme' parties of left and right, but in the end many did just
that and stuck two fingers up at condescending elite pundits who
tried to tell them what to do. The experienced political
commentator, Peter Oborne, noted in relation to UKIP and Nigel
Farage that: 'Several newspapers, above all the Times, have run
vendettas or smear campaigns,' but such campaigns backfired
spectacularly, with UKIP topping the poll. The days of people
reading leader articles in 'serious' newspapers for advice and
guidance on who to vote for have thankfully gone - we've now got
a much wider range of media outlets to consult and the internet
too from which to gather information.

Lesson #6:Mind the democratic deficit - it
really is massive.

The low turnout of 43.09 percent, which was only 0.09 percent
higher than in 2009, and the low polling for many traditional
governing parties shows us the big disconnect between European
citizens and their political leaders and the lack of enthusiasm
for the EU generally. In Britain just 36 percent voted. If you
think that's poor, in Slovakia a mere 13 percent went to the
polls. The fact is that if it is to survive, the EU needs a major
democratic overhaul. But are the Eurocrats, who have shown time
and time again how they love to put their heads in the sand and
ignore the views of the public on issue after issue, listening?

Lesson #7:Austerity isn't working.

Or, rather it may be working for the 1 percent (as the need for
government cuts in spending is used as an excuse to privatize
remaining publicly-owned assets), but it clearly isn't working
for the majority. Unemployment rates in many European countries
are horrific and it is the state of European economies which is
at the heart of this anti-Establishment backlash and is the
reason why so many on the continent feel nostalgic for the
sixties and seventies when countries enjoyed rising living
standards, high growth rates and low unemployment. As Alexis
Tsipras, the leader of Syriza has said, this weekend's election
results showed that 'the people of Europe condemned the policies
of austerity.' While our leaders can't turn the clock back thirty
or forty years, they could and should break with the current
polices which have done so much damage to the living standards of
ordinary people. If they don't, then we can only expect more
unrest and support for parties that do offer radically different
economic solutions to rise further.

BBC's Hugh Schofield says of the success of the Front National, who sensationally topped the poll in
France, “For the mainstream parties to treat this victory as
they have all other FN advances - as an irritating aberration to
be countered with routine shouts of 'Racist!’ - would be an act
of monumental stupidity and arrogance.”

Schofield is right. Establishment politicians and pundits have
for too long sought to counter the rise of populist parties of
the right, or far-right, by simply labeling them 'racist' and
expecting that branding them in such a way will be enough to stop
people from voting for them.

Although it may be true that some of these right-wing groups are
indeed racist (and of course all genuine racism must be
condemned), the trouble is that the word 'racist' has tended to
be overused in recent years and consequently no longer has the
effect it may have once had. Many regard it (like overused and
misapplied charges of 'anti-Semitism' and 'extremism') as an
attempt by establishment gatekeepers to narrow the parameters of
acceptable debate, and have noticed that it has been used
selectively by these gatekeepers to target those who threaten
elite interests. Furthermore, it is not directed against genuine
racists, anti-Semites or extremists whose interests happen to
coincide with those of Western elites e.g. far-right, Neo-Nazi
anti-Russian groups in Ukraine, Western-backed Libyan 'rebels' in
2011 who targeted black Libyans and sub-Saharan Africans, or Al-Qaeda linked
'rebels' who target people of different faiths in Syria.
It's clear that the labeling of certain populist right-wing
European parties as 'racist' by establishment figures not only
won't work, but may actually make more people vote for such
parties, as they are able to portray elite attacks on them as a
badge of honor and proof that they are upsetting all the right
people.

Lesson #9:The Greens are still a political
force.

The Greens don't get much media coverage, but despite that they
did well in a number of countries. In Austria they increased
their share of the vote by over 4.5 percent from 2009, and now
have three MEPs from that country. In Sweden, the Greens finished
second with 15.30 percent. In Belgium the Green vote rose from
4.9 percent to 6.51 percent. In Britain the party finished fourth
and managed to beat the Liberal Democrats.

Lesson #10:In an age of bland, robotic,
identikit politicians who are always 'on message', being
charismatic and outspoken is a huge vote winner.

People are voting for populist parties of the left and right
across the continent, not only because of their policies but also
because the leaders of these parties are usually more charismatic
than the more pompous and boring leaders of 'mainstream'
parties who are terrified of saying the 'wrong' thing.

In Britain few would surely argue that Nigel Farage, along with
George Galloway, the leader of Respect, tops the political
personality stakes. People are tired of politicians who look the
same, sound the same and espouse the same policies: people who
never dare to express any opinion that strays outside the very
narrow parameters set by the whips. Any party that espouses
anti-establishment policies in Europe today and has a reasonably
charismatic leader who looks and sounds different from other
members of the political class, and who is not afraid to say
exactly what he or she thinks, is going to attract plenty of
support, even if such a leader is routinely branded an
'extremist' by the 'Shut up, you can't say that' brigade. If
Europe's mainstream parties want to fight back against the tide,
they not only need major policy changes, but they also have to
elect leaders who act and sound like normal people and who have
engaging personalities. Or is that too much to ask for?

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.